Find a library

Preview

This chapter presents two narratives that illustrate how adolescents experience more adult mourning. In the first, a 15-year-old boy and his 16-year-old sister confront the death of their mother. They have a 13-year-old sister as well. What can be observed are differences between the early and the mid-adolescents in the timing of their most intense mourning, differences in their symptoms, and their ability to recover after a few months of intense grief. In the second narrative, a 16-year-old girl loses her beloved father and tries to negotiate a new relationship with her mother, who was...

This chapter presents two narratives that illustrate how adolescents experience more adult mourning. In the first, a 15-year-old boy and his 16-year-old sister confront the death of their mother. They have a 13-year-old sister as well. What can be observed are differences between the early and the mid-adolescents in the timing of their most intense mourning, differences in their symptoms, and their ability to recover after a few months of intense grief. In the second narrative, a 16-year-old girl loses her beloved father and tries to negotiate a new relationship with her mother, who was herself in the midst of her own troubled mourning. The chapter ends with a summary of the characteristics of the children and families that constitute the four possible outcomes when last interviewed, 8 to 14 months after the parent died.